Rigging a lugsail

Hi all

I received a package from Classic Marine yesterday containing , amongst other things, the mast traveller ( sod the expense!). I've never had a lugsail boat before and was musing last night on how the yard and boom attach. Should they be leathered where they rub and what's the method of attaching the yard to the traveler and the boom to the downhaul. Any photos would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

Hi Jon.
I was lucky, a friend made a traveller for me.
There are several ways to attach the lines to the spars.
The simplest is probably the rolling hitch but if you are anything like me I'm a bit kack handed when it comes to knots, so I wouldn't trust mine.
This is how it goes if you want to give it a try, https://youtu.be/7tedC0Sepp8

I have decided to go for a simple strop;
This one is work in progress, I won't screw the cleat down until I am happy with where it wants to be on the yard.

 

 The mainsheet and downhaul will use something similar.



It is much easier to splice three strand rope but as a bit of a learning exercise I thought I'd have a go at Double Braid with varying levels of success.



These are some of my attempts so far, good luck if you go that way, it can be very frustrating at first.

Regards Graham.


 

Thanks Graham. I like using 12 strand Dynema, not very traditional looking but incredibly versatile and easy to splice with the correct fid.  Splicing the double braided rope seems a lot more complicated and the fids aren't cheap. Think I'll try whipping some eyes and see how they come out, certainly less bulky than a bowline.
Once I get the sails I can rig the boat and see how things look.

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The bronze traveller sheathed in leather worked pretty well on a 27ft whaleboat with trapiezoidal lug sail I sailed for most of 20 years.  Its geometry was very 19th century but had all modern materials including carbon spars.  I could find you pic if needed.

For our Morbic 12 we decided to try a wooden traveller, as mentioned by Vivier in his Manual*, but gave up on making from "Freshly cut chestnut"
Wooden mast hoops are quite expensive but we found some very affordable embroidery hoops. Pic here https://mymorbic.uk/2/Proteus.html#gallery-50 .

We also tried the (Vivier) boom jaw* - Not successful for us, so we're now using a "bleater".  Amongst its advantages are; it operates better, is light and simple, takes up no space in the sail bag, no manufacturing involved. pics available if needed.

Attaching halyards to spar, and mainsheet to boom.  I like the Choker hitch.  It is like a cow hitsh but made from a pre-formed continuous loop.  (pics below).

Reducing chafe between mast and spars.  Vivier has diagrams in The Boat building sheets*   Basically you wrap with "miles" of 3mm cord.  Mike and Sara's boat "Swefn" was done that way by Adrian Donovan.

* Do you have a copy of Vivier's "Wooden-BoatBuilding-sheets.pdf"?
* Do you have Vivier's "Manual - Building Morbic 12Clinker dinghy"?

Try this for a more professional description than mine.
https://www.storerboatplans.com/tuning/lug-rig-setup/goat-island-skiff-rig-and-rigging-details-for-efficient-lug-sails/#General_Theory_of_attaching_Blocks_to_Spars_-_Booms_and_yards
I aim to adopt the "Storer" method for main halyard attachment.

Michael Storer has a lot of good stuff about rigging lugsail on a modern design here
https://www.storerboatplans.com/tuning/lug-rig-setup/goat-island-skiff-rig-and-rigging-details-for-efficient-lug-sails/
And here
https://www.storerboatplans.com/tuning/lug-rig-setup/everything-lug-rig-and-lug-sail/.

There are some pics of our build, and little details on the "Proteus" page which is liked from the table of Known Morbics. (>Here<)

Meanwhile, here's our spar attachment and protective lashing:-

Thanks Paul, that's all useful. I've got some leather so I'll use that rather than miles of string. Good to have options for attaching the spars.

I went even simpler at the bottom end. Just a loop of rope around the boom, and the leather keeps it from slipping along, as well as protecting the mast.



The polyester rope didn't last long, even thought it looked 'genuine'. There was far too much stretch, and with the lugsail in particular, you will find you have to have a lot of tension in the luff, so I replaced it with something modern (oh, the shame!).

FYI - There is an almost parallel topic at "Of Sails and Sisters"